This invention relates to devices for collecting and measuring precipitation and, more particularly, to a precipitation gauge for collecting precipitation including rain and sprinkler-deposited water and providing a visually well-defined water level demarcation at the top surface of the water collected in the gauge and an expanded measuring scale at low precipitation levels.
Various types of devices are available for measuring precipitation. These devices typically collect the precipitation in a receptacle which has markings to indicate the level of water in the receptacle and hence the amount of precipitation collected over a period of time. Many of these prior art devices comprise containers with either a portion or the entirety of their vertical surfaces clear, so that the water within the container can be seen from a distance. Typically, level indications are applied either directly to clear areas on a container's outer surface or to areas inside the container so that the levels of precipitation collected may be read on or through the clear areas of the container.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to make out the top surface of the water collected in such precipitation collecting gauges since typically the demarcation at the top surface of the water is not a sharp, well-defined one and low amounts of precipitation produce limited measurement levels in the gauges. Thus, from a distance it is oftentimes particularly difficult to even tell whether water has been collected in the gauge and, if so, to determine the level of that water.